In celebration of National Pizza Day, a look at the pizza capitals of America

From politics to environmental issues, controversy runs rampant. But one thing remains beloved by (almost) everyone: pizza. So in honor of National Pizza Day (Feb. 9), here's a look at the pizza capitals of the U.S.

Intro

Today, there aren't many things that Americans can agree on. From politics to environmental issues, controversy runs rampant. But one thing remains beloved by (almost) everyone: pizza.

According to a study released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2014, one in eight Americans can be found eating pizza on any given day. Pizza is a $40 billion industry and almost 60,000 pizza restaurants open their doors each day in the United States alone. With 3 billion pizzas sold each year, it's no question that the cheesy slices are a major part of the American diet.

But not all pizza is created equal, and some cities around the U.S. are consistently better than others at pushing out quality pies. That's why FindTheHome, a real estate intelligence site, set out to find the pizza capitals of America. Using Yelp's API, Yelp Fusion, the data scientists calculated an aggregate "Pizza Score" for all cities with at least 100,000 people. They used three sub-metrics to measure pizza prevalence, inherent quality and quality compared to other types of food. Those three metrics include:

- Prevalence: The total number of pizza restaurants in a given city- Inherent Quality: The percentage of pizza restaurants in a given city rated with four or more stars- Quality Compared to Other foods: The average Yelp rating of pizza restaurants in a given city compared to the average rating of all restaurants in that city

FindTheHome compared the average scores of pizza restaurants to other non-pizza restaurants to ensure that the cities on the list sell pizza that stands out in comparison to other types of food — think Chinese or Mexican food. The list is ranked by the Pizza Score, with the highest score being the No. 1 pizza capital in America. When ties occur, the cities are ordered according to the average rating for pizza restaurants in that city.

Whether you love the Big Apple's thin-crust pie by the slice, or you think it's Chicago deep-dish or bust, we've settled the score.